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Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Games To Have In Your Collection?
SternisheFan writes: I am not a "gamer," per se. I grew up on "old school" arcade/Atari-type games. My question is: What are the very best games to own? Let's assume platform is irrelevant — any console, any computer, any operating system, any mobile device. I'd just like to know what you think are the most indispensable games to have in your collection.
Let's expand this to include board games and other tabletop games as well. What games do you make sure to always have on hand for get-togethers?
leave the circle-jerks to reddit.
River Raid
Neverwinter Nights
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
-Possum Lodge Motto
For get-togethers the easiest thing to use is just plain old cards. The number of games that can be had from just a couple decks is great.
Common games for us -
Blackjack, Hearts, Pinochle, Poker, etc
for more entertainment you could always Check out Cards again Humanity for those with a twisted sense of humor.
If people aren't too uptight, cards against humanity is great.
Mario kart (any version)
trivial pursuit
subjective lists are awesome! If you don't know your friends well enough to know what they like, you have other questions you should be delving into first :)
NetHack, preferrably on a public server
Years of time can be wasted
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
MOO2
Civ2 - Call to power
Descent
NeverWinterNights 2
Tribes (I & II)
Seawolf
MechWarrior
Dark Reign
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
completely agree on both of these! I would also say yatzee and scrabble are must haves. I always find myself replaying Super Mario 1 and 3, so personally I'd include them as well.
That's like asking what's the best food to have in your fridge. What is the best color is along the same lines...
Bacon and green. Next!
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
The best games are the ones I have played between the ages of 10-18.
The ones before that are too primitive, the ones after that are just full of eye candy and attempts to just harness a bunch of money.
Oddly enough a lot of my favorite movies and TV shows were during that time too.
I guess things were just better during the time where you didn't have any responsibilities.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I like to play a game called "Troll the Internet"
You pick some category (music, books, movies, etc) and then ask a question along the lines of "Which is better?". You can even do it with entire categories (e.g. "What are the best songs to have in my music collection?" "What are the best books to read?")
It's hilarious watching the infighting and attempts to justify responses to a subjective question.
The game has gotten a bit out of hand though. I've even seen it being played on popular tech forums like "Slashdot".
Baldur's gate II is the best of the infinity engine games, all of which are already great. Dark Souls and Dark Souls II have the best method of story delivery in any RPG I've ever seen, as well as easily the most engaging and immersive combat. To illustrate, when I was fighting one of DSII's new DLC bosses recently I did something I hadn't done since I first picked up a controller: I moved my physical body to dodge an incoming blow, instead of pressing the relevant button. The last time I did that I was 7 years old and jumping on goombas. It's that good.
Dominion! This is an excellent card based game. Not difficult to pick up, a warmup game clears up things quickly, and as a bonus they've got an official electronic version online at http://playdominion.com built using html and js, and there is a chrome extension too. You can play without signing up or logging in and against bots or other players not to mention the entire base game is free. You are not hindered with the "base game" and there are several expansions which add additional cards to the game. The game itself uses 10 cards at a time which you can randomly draw to keep things interesting or if you prefer you can build decks. Dominion shines with 3+ players and maxes out at 8. Games last anywhere from 10-45 minutes. I'm actually working on an IRC port of this since everything is better on IRC >.>
Munchkin is another great party game.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Give up already and switch to sdlmame.
Computer Games: The original Master of Orion
Card Games: Dominion (also on Mobile), Poker,
Pure Board Games: Chess, Ra, Power Grid.
My club's favorite boardgames: 7 Wonders, Dominion, For Sale, Forbidden Island, High Society, Incan Gold, Kingdom Builder, Kingsburg, Pandemic, Power Grid, Power Grid: The First Sparks, Puerto Rico, Qwirkle, San Juan, Stone Age, Ticket to Ride: Europe, TransAmerica, Tsuro
Would you like some cheese with your whine? ;)
Even better is the game Apples to Apples wants to be when it grows up: Cards Against Humanity.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
The Orange Box bundled:
-Portal
-Half Life 2
-Team Fortress 2
Seven years later, all three are still among the best games to have and play.
The "best" games depends on how many people you have to play, not to mention their tastes and time commitment.
Nothing beats Diplomacy, but you need seven people, a whole day, and people who can be bastards when required.
Other games I keep going back to are Civilization (the original board game that has nothing to do with Sid Meier), Kingmaker, Pictionary, Scattergories, and the Combat Mission series of digital war games.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
for taking years of my life (Fallout and Elder Scrolls Series). My love will only return as soon as you publish something else
Final Fantasy 4 doesn't get enough love. I really appreciate your unconventional choice of 9 though.
Green Eggs and Ham FTW!
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
UT2004, certainly if you can invite some friends over.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Personally I think Planescape: Torment is the best infinity engine game by far.
'2. All of Infocom's text adventures.'
Text adventures are still being produced. The Interactive Fiction Archive has many old and new games. Many are very good.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
I don't understand how you kids can play Nethack on a phone.
This old nerd needs all the keys.
What we need more of is science!
Throw in:
Battlezone
Stargate (defender upgrade)
Joust
Doom
T-Mek
Descent
Mortal Combat
Virtua Fighter
Space Lords
Police 911
Crazy Tax
Nethack
Rtype
BattleTech (mech pods version)
Out Run, Space Harrier, Arkanoid, Ghost'n'Goblins, Commando, Boulder Dash, Sokoban, Tetris, etc.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Blue... no, wait .. Gree- AHhhhhhhhhh
This signature is false.
Hide The Salami.
Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
The FOSS remake (The Ur-Quan Masters) lacks one "feature" from the original Star Control 2 released by Accolade: in the original, it was possible to sell your last planet lander, and then to sell one more (?!), which would leave you with (practically) infinitely many more. This gives you limitless RU right from the start of the game (well, at least once you clear the moon, kill the Ilwrath scout, and gain full access to the human starbase), which makes it much easier to trigger the Yehat schizm in time to save the Pkunk.
For those that have never experienced this masterpiece, here's one of my favorite bits of dialogue. The protagonist asks the Zoq-Fot-Pik (an alien race, or really three alien races that originated on one common world) "what was your history like?"
Our past? Quite a broad topic for this short conversation
...Or should we just go back into the forest
...that they decided the Zoq hadn't really died when the wheel flattened him
but we'll share a key piece of our history with you.
After we killed off the last Zebranky
we faced an interesting dilemma.
Should we proceed, and establish a culture
which would advance in art, technology and social sophistication?...
and kick back and enjoy ourselves
knowing that a Zebranky wasn't gonna jump out of a bush and eat us!
Well, we DID go back into the forest.
We stayed there for about five thousand years and had a great time
Then, one stormy day, a Zoq, a Fot, and a Pik were walking up a steep path
looking for something good to eat, when a bolt of lightning struck nearby.
With a huge flash of light, the bolt of energy
carved a strangely-shaped chunk of granite out of a cliff.
It was a disk, with a hole in the middle!
As the rock began to roll down the hill, toward the three terrified beings
some dry grass got caught in its hole, and since the rock was still hot
the grass caught on fire.
When the rock finally got to the Zoq, the Fot, and the Pik
they simultaneously discovered the Wheel, Fire, and Religion
thus catapulting them on to the road of progress.
Which has led us to this day, Captain.
Oh! How did the flaming wheel give religion to our Culture, you ask?
I will explain.
You see, when it got to the threesome, the flaming wheel was going at a pretty good clip
and it ran smack into the Zoq, killing him.
The Fot and the Pik felt so bad
they really liked that Zoq!...
he had just gone to `a better place.'
Presumably one without lethal flaming wheels.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
Dungeons & Dragons RPG (Gary Gygax era).
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
My list:
Rogue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
Seriously been playing this game since the early 80s and have never "Won" there are thousands of variants but there's a particularly nice Android version: https://play.google.com/store/...
Ultima 7/7.5: http://www.gog.com/game/ultima...
Revolutionary when it came out. My friends and I in high-school literally sat their with our mouths hanging open the first time we launched the game. The MMO based on it was one of the first I'd call a true mmo: http://www.uo.com/ (let the flame wars begin on that statement, just so you know ahead of time: I don't care)
https://www.everquest.com/ -- first 3D mmo worth its salt. Huge time sink though.
Robocraft -- Build robots out of legos... then blow them up. Super fun. It's my current game. http://store.steampowered.com/...
Mario 64, by today's standards, is a pretty boring platformer.
Are you kidding? I just played through this again the other day. Flying, swimming, getting shot out of a cannon, riding a turtle shell like a skateboard.. Mario 64 is one of the best 3D games of all time. Ocarina of Time still stands up too.
And while I'm here, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Oh, good example. Y'all probably know that already, but Star Control 2 is now available freely under an open source license, just under the different name of Ur-Quan Masters due to trademark issues.
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
I have both Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, and I prefer Apples to Apples. The gameplay of both is essentially the same but CAH derives most of its humor from being as scatological, gross, and kinky as possible. I understand why that appeals to people, I just generally prefer the tamer "good clean fun" version that can be played with kids and grandparents.
Or you can mix the two and play Apples Against Humanity.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Portal
Porta2
SouthPark Stick of Truth
Monkey Island 1+2 (+3)
HalfLife (Source), Opposing Force, HalfLife2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Unreal Tournament '99
Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake2, Quake3Arena
F.E.A.R.
Splinter Cell and/or Thief
Sam & Max
Neverwinter Nights
Gianna Sisters
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
Orange is the best color.
It's the maintenance man. He knows I like orange.
Also, and on-topic, Deus Ex is a must-play game.
Came to instigate a reinstallation. Saw that I was beaten to it. Left satisfied.
Everytime someone mentions Deus Ex, someone reinstalls Deus Ex
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I MUST OWN THEM ALL HRRRGRRBLLL DIGITAL HOARDING
*ahem*
Sorry about that. I tend to get a little foamy when I digitally hoard. Anyways, counter to your point it's fun (for me, YMMV of course) to have as many as you can get. Sometimes I'll fire up MAME and simply pick out old games at random. Some I remember, some I never have seen before. It's like being an archaeologist in your own past. I'll do the same thing with C64 archives and Amiga archives (look for Amiga Tosec). Scores of Atari 2600 games. All the video discs for Daphne (the videodisc game emulator). Dragon's Lair, anyone?
It's a wish come true for younger-me. I used to mow lawns just to save up and get an Atari cartridge. Now I can download Stella and inside of ten minutes have ALL of them. Fun! And yes, someday I will make a MAME cabinet. Oh yes. It will be glorious.
So basically TL;DR it's really fun to poke around with. And really, with the price of storage these days you can store the entire library of an entire genre on a few blu ray discs. A 3 Tb hard drive is about $100 at NewEgg. Why not have them?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
http://www.trueachievements.co... as this thread illustrates, one person's gem is another's turd. Or the reverse http://www.trueachievements.co...
It's not over-thinking it, it's just basic common sense. A decade or so ago when I worked at a video store I had a massive following (turned out to be 50% of the business) because I recognized the simple fact that when someone asks for a recommendation, they don't want what you thought was good, they wanted what they think is good. Customer who comes in and loves b grade horrors isn't going to like Downton Abby, but they'll love Eight Legged Freaks. Games are no different. I can swear up and down that Bioshock, System Shock 2, and Masters of Orion 2 are some of the best games ever made - but if the person prefers RPGs they're not going to agree with me.
Not saying don't ask these types of questions but if you're going to ask the community about this sort of thing be more specific as overly broad questions serve no one but those seeking to argue.
Duke Nukem, dammnit!